CDS attacks Navy abduction case main witness, abduction attempt says Navy sources 

Chief of Defence Staff Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne, the country’s most senior military officer has been accused of attacking Lt.

Commander Laksiri Geethal Galagamage within the premises of the Naval Headquarters yesterday. Galagamage is a key witness in the Navy abduction for ransom case where a group of naval officers are accused of abducting 11 men for extortion purposes. His statement to the CID also implicated Wijegunaratne who is now accused of providing protection to one of the main accused in the case Lt. Commander Chandana Prasad Hettiarachchi alias Navy Sampath while also aiding and abetting him to flee the country and even supporting him financially during his tenure as Navy Commander. 

Wijegunaratne had confronted Galagamage today as the latter was walking out of the officer's mess, the Colombo Telegraph reports.

According to the media report, Wijegunaratne had arrived with a group of aides after being informed of Galagamage’s presence in the officer’s mess around 2 pm on Sunday. Wijegunaratne in a manner known as common for him had abused Galagamage in obscene language while ordering his aides to haul the officer before him. Perhaps in fear of his life, Galagamage in during the ruckus had attempted to make a run for it with the PSO of Wijegunaratne hot on his heels and a pistol aimed at the key witness. Fearing he would be shot Galagamage had knocked the pistol off the PSO’s hand and fled the Naval HQ going on to lodge a complaint at the Fort Police Station. In the melee, Galagamage’s mobile phone had fallen out of his pocket and was retrieved by Wijegunaratne’s aides. 

Undue Threats to Police

According to the Colombo Telegraph Wijegunaratne had also attempted to coerce OIC of the Fort Police Station to not record Galagamage’s complaint regarding the assault and the theft of his mobile. However, the OIC is said to have visited Naval HQ today for the inquiry only to be blocked by senior Navy officers. However, he has made a lengthy log entry regarding the incident the Colombo Telegraph report said. Sources within the Navy say it appears to have been an attempt to abduct Galagamage. 

Failing to succeed in transferring the investigating officer of the case IP Nishantha Silva through President Maithripala Sirisena last week by falsely accusing Silva of having LTTE links in a desperate bid to prevent his own arrest, pressure appears to be mounting on Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne who is scheduled to present himself at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) tomorrow in order to provide a statement in connection to the case. The Colombo Fort Magistrates Court has ordered the arrest of Wijegunaratne several times. However reporting to courts in one instance on the failure to arrest him, IP Silva of the CID said there are various obstacles in taking the CDS into custody. It is well known that he is being protected by President Sirisena who even allowed him to travel to Mexico in order to attend Mexico’s National Day celebrations representing Sri Lanka when Wijegunaratne was required to present himself at the CID to provide a statement on a previous occasion. 

However, Magistrate Ranga Dissanayake has provided the CID time till November 28 to present Wijegunaratne before the courts to face allegations of aiding and abetting a wanted suspect to avoid law enforcement and flee the country. It is prior to the court date that the CID has served the summons on the CDS who has now gone on to assault the key witness against him. 

Strong evidence against Wijegunaratne 

According to the CID, it had sent two messages to the administrative branch of Navy HQ for the attention of Wijegunaratne who was at the time Commander, on March 1 and March 28, 2017. The messages had requested the Navy to produce Lt. Commander Hettiarachchi alias Navy Sampath to the CID on March 2 and 31, respectively. However, responding to the CID the Navy had claimed it was not aware of Hettiarachchi’s whereabouts. But evidence and witness statements later revealed that Hettiarachchi was being harboured by the Navy with the knowledge of the Commander at the Naval Headquarters in Colombo during the time.

Making a statement to the CID, Hettiarachchi’s wife had claimed she visited her husband thrice at the Navy HQ between March 3 - 31, 2017 while the Navy continued to claim it had no knowledge of Hettiarachchi’s location. 

Galagamage’s statement further supported this. In his statement to law enforcement he claimed, Hettiarachchi was housed in the adjacent room to his, in the officers’ mess at the time. He also recalled that at one time encountering both Wijegunaratne and Hettiarachchi in the lift he was able to listen in on a damning conversation between the two. 

“Seeing Hettiarachchi, Navy Commander Wijegunaratne inquired as to where he was heading off to, Hettiarachchi said he was visiting the Light House to meet his wife. Wijegunaratne then said he will not be held responsible if the Police nab Hettiarachchi if he jaunts about” Galagamage had told the CID proving Wijegunaratne was fully aware that Hettiarachchi was being harboured within the HQ. CID was able to further establish this by obtaining receipts for food and drink dispensed by the officer's mess to Hettiarachchi at the time. 

As a result, the CID has accused the CDS of allegedly shielding Navy Sampath from investigators while also misleading them by claiming that the Navy did not know his whereabouts.
 
Financial help for the main suspect
 
But the CID has also accused Wijegunaratne of providing Hettiarachchi with financial help. According to Laksiri’s statement sometime after the incident in the lift, Hettiarachchi was seen packing a bag. Showing him a small bag full of money Hettiarachchi had claimed it came from the Commander for expenses. He had vanished from the Navy HQ the next day. The CID during a previous court sitting had reported that the Sri Lanka Navy had transferred half a million rupees to Hettiarachchi from a special account maintained at the Bank of Ceylon.
 
As the CID closes in on him with the court standing steadfast yesterday's incident has merely landed Wijegunaratne in further hot water and has revealed his sheer desperation to avoid assured jail time.